Slideshow
THE WILD ONE
U.S., 1953
Directed by László Benedek
Starring Marlon Brando, Mary Murphy
Screenplay by John Paxton, Ben Maddow
Approx. 79 min. 4K DCP restoration.
“What’re you rebelling against?” “Whaddya got?” In an image that launched a million posters, biker Marlon Brando and his gang zoom into Wrightsville (get it?) and shake things up but good — but there’s Lee Marvin’s off-the-wall rival leader to contend with. “For THE WILD ONE, [Brando wears] a cool-looking cap, dark glasses, and a leather jacket as he roars into a small town at the head of a gang of young motorcyclists out for trouble… The original biker film (its progeny include EASY RIDER and THE WILD ANGELS, among many others), THE WILD ONE struck a nerve.” – Foster Hirsch
Reviews
“A sleazy good time.”
– Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
“An ugly, debauched and frightening view of a small but peculiarly significant and menacing element of modern youth…And in a second wolf-pack leader, whom Lee Marvin gruesomely portrays as a glandular ‘psycho’ or dope-fiend or something fantastically mad, there is briefly injected into this picture a glimpse of utter monstrosity, loose and enjoying the privilege of hectoring others in a fair society.”
– Bosley Crowther, The New York Times